“Alcohol Lottery” in the Czech Republic: “the losers” is dead, “organizers”-search
September 20, 2012, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Necas reported that the Czech Government has imposed an immediate ban on all exports of alcoholic beverages in the European Union. So far 23 people in the Czech Republic have died from poisoning metilovam alcohol. About 40 suffered from poisoning the adulterated alcohol and are currently in hospitals. Victims in serious condition, many blind, that is a typical consequence of human poisoning metilovam alcohol. On the eve of the European Commission on Wednesday asked the Czech Republic to prohibit the export of liquor in the countries of the Union. The most famous export brand of Czech Republic-Karlovy Vary Becherovka “. Its production lines were stopped the following day.
Czech authorities plan to gradually resume alcohol sales on the domestic market from the middle of next week, using the new excise stamps and certificates of origin of alcoholic beverages. September 20, 2012, the Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic Miroslav Kalousek After the meeting, the Government signed an order under which state securities factory starts now print new excise stamps. If the designation of the current products on production lines with new excise stamps is not problem marking product previously, could take several months.
The Czech Government has decided to provide each bottle Passport on alcohol from which it would be known precisely where manufacture of the alcohol. Each party will still be generated and Protocol of special laboratory. The Government has set a target to identify not only the place of production of a particular batch of spirits, but her movement on wholesale commercial networks until the retail counter.
With the increasing number of cases of poisoning of fake alcoholic drinks containing poisonous methyl alcohol, in the Czech Republic was temporarily banned the sale of alcohol in the street stalls. Once a source of dangerous goods was not detected, the ban has spread to all the bars, restaurants and shops. By the evening of 14 September informed the Minister of health Leoš Heger. In stores in the Czech Republic at the moment, there are already 20 million bottles of alcoholic drinks, which can not be put into implementation. Violators of the ban face strict penalties. Czech restaurants, experts estimate for each day that a ban on the sale of their walls fortified strong drinks are around 200 million. CZK. Because of the ban on the sale of strong alcohol producers and importers are a daily income of 15 million CZK (€ 600 000). Executive order affected approximately 1000 workers of Czech spirits industry. The ban affects related companies: workers in agriculture, manufacturers of glass containers and cargo. The Czech State due to the prohibition of nedosčityvaet about 25 million. CZK (€ 1 million) daily. Curiously, against a ban by the European Union producers of alcoholic beverages, which was to bear the losses from the ban on the sale of their products in the territory of the Czech Republic.
The opposition representatives in the Czech Parliament demanded compensation for the families of the dead from poisoning with methanol. It came at all on State compensation for liqueur-vodka industry of the Czech Republic. The Prime Minister has so far refused to talk about it.
“Alcohol Lottery”, where a losing ticket is death, in the Czech Republic started September 6, 2012 year. Autopsy 71-year-old woman, who died at home in Budišove nad Budišovkoj Opavskoj area of the Czech Republic, confirmed that the death was due to poisoning by methanol. 8 September in the severočešskom city of Havířov from drinking counterfeit alcohol killed three people, six were in hospital in serious condition. The police found that people were poisoned by fake alcohol, so the filling out of a kiosk during the city celebration. Police urged residents not to drink kvass alcohol.
Poisoning have been recorded in North and South Moravia, Olomouc region in Prerov, and Pržibrame under the Prague. The patient of Pržibrama was brought to Prague and died in the hospital. In the media claimed that four other comrades affected by raspitiû of spirits is not affected. The Ministry of agriculture conducts nationwide inspection “suspicious” items on sale of alcohol. The Ministry of health checks to purchase alcoholic beverages, restaurants and bars throughout the Czech Republic.
Guile poisoning metilovam alcohol is that people in most cases think that they were just drunk and refused to immediately contact a doctor. When they are brought to the hospital, often found that internal organs irreversibly amazed and refuse to operate. Even in small doses, the person loses his eyesight. In some cases, the amount of methyl alcohol in the drink was so high that for severe poisoning victim was enough to drink one glass of soft drink.
In Czech hospitals from Norway was delivered a special remedy fomepizol to treat people in an extreme degree of intoxication. The cost of drugs in one package for one patient is € 8 thousand. Only the Czech Republic 85 such packages were delivered. Additional funds for the purchase of an antidote made from its budget, the Ministry of health of the Czech Republic. Czech health insurance companies paying for the treatment of victims, have already announced that they will require expenditures from the criminals responsible for the mass poisoning of alcohol adulterated if any are installed and sentenced to punishment.
In the first day after the ban, i.e. 15 September, Prague police checked more than 1514 shops, restaurants and bars for violating a ban on the sale of strong alcohol.
With regard to the results of checks the content of the bottles, they offer limited results. Many of the thousands tested detected bromide bottle rare. So, on 16 September the finished bottles of alcohol analysis confirmed the presence of methanol in 36 cases. But police still have not been able to locate the main source of pouring deadly methyl alcohol.
Earlier, the police of the Czech Republic launched a RAID to find clandestine workshops for production of alcoholic products. To date the criminal cases brought against 23 persons, in case of suspicion that house searches were conducted at 40 people. The suspect in the production of counterfeit alcohol face imprisonment from three to ten years. In the Sudetan Mountains not far from Cheb near the village of Plesna Czech police discovered well-equipped production, empty bottles of different capacity, stickers, and 100 thousand of excise stamps. Immediately found in plastic barrels a few hundred litres of fluid undefined until experts. On site were detained three Vietnamese held the production of counterfeit alcohol. Still, the police detained and charged the man who traded strong liquor by the glass in Havířov. In Prague were found in unmarked containers with alcohol, which immediately informed the Minister of health Leoš Heger. On the market in the town of Český Těšín 200 litres of alcohol were seized in bottles without excise stamps. Police discovered in Novo-Jičinskoj area of the underground workshop for production of alcoholic products, where it was harvested approximately 5000 gallons of poison alcohol. Police detained the man, who is suspected of being sold via the Internet, the surrogate alcohol inhabitant of Boskovice, later was hospitalized with poisoning with methanol. The seller offered on Internet portals of homemade plum brandy. In one case, argued that the wife, hospitalized on September 16 in Opava, poisoned vodka, bought at the Bazaar in neighboring Poland. As a result of the Polish-Czech border was rather transparent control over smuggling of Polish tourists the Czech alcohol in Poland. September 16, 2012, the Chief sanitary doctor of Poland announced a month ban on trade on the territory of Poland alcohol Czech production with more than 20 degrees.
What is the reason for the current methyl scandal in the Czech Republic? The fact that in historical times, the Empire of the Habsburgs knew no monopoly on the production of strong drinks. Since there is a tradition of the distillation of alcohol in a specific amount for the fixed payment to the Treasury. On this basis, there were and there are many small spirtoperegonnyh plants. Recently this network has become the shadow business, which was gradually expanded, so that now approximately one fifth of the total alcohol illicit origin. Greed and irresponsibility is, and this is mostly Vietnamese and created in the Czech Republic, the current case of metilovymi poisoning.